Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce The Big Apple, a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.

"An optimist laughs to forget and a pessimist forgets to laugh” was cited in print in an American newspaper from July 1922. No author was credited. “The optimist laughs to forget, while the pessimist forgets to laugh.—Rosalind Fuller” was cited in July 1922. “Jim Mundell says the optimist laughs to forget. The pessimist forgets to laugh” was cited in November 1922. “Walter Whitcomb says ‘the optimist laughs to forget; the pessimist forgets to laugh’” was also cited in November 1922.

Authorship remains unknown. American author and radio host Tom Bodett (born in 1955) has also been credited, but the saying existed before he was born.

Google BooksThe Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love
By Paul Dobransky
New York, NY: Plume
2007
Pg. 207:
The difference between an optimist and a pessimist? An optimist laughs to forget, hut a pessimist forgets to laugh. —Tom Bodett ...

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The difference between an optimist and a pessimist? An optimist laughs to forget but a pessimist forgets to laugh. ~Tom Bodett
6:14 PM - 5 Jul 2015